2.13.2013

Dark First, or Light First?

I've had my Carnifex carapace bitz primed for a while now, but am stuck on how to proceed. As mentioned in the past, I'm aiming for a European Green Crab style scheme. Like this:

Or this:

Yes, those are slightly different colors, but the question remains the same regardless of color combo. Do you paint the dark first, or the light first?
The top crab goes from brown-green up to blue-green with yellow-green in there as well. I'm obviously going to have to dumb down the patterning, but I'm not sure if I should start with the blue-green and feather out to the brown-green, or start with brown-green and blend up to blue-green.

As you can see from my Marines, I'm a clean, smooth painter. I work with line highlights, layering, and freehand to make my stuff look nice-yet-plain. This mottled, mixed thing is completely alien to me. I'm just not sure where to begin!
I can probably just start slapping paint on my test pieces, since that's what they're for, but I'd prefer to set myself up for success with good advice.

8 comments:

Either method works. What's going to matter is how the colors look with either method in the end. Meaning, going dark first and then blending up will give your top colors are darker look. If you start bright and blend down then your darker colors will be lighter. Basically, try both and see which looks better ;)

While true, again, I find it's the finished product that makes the call. Does the color look more like you envisioned on a dark base coat or a light one? I know I've tried many things that were sound in theory and just didn't pan out in practice.

The carnifex comes with more than one carapace, right? Maybe try painting one in each color scheme so you can compare side by side.

One thing to consider is how it will affect detail. Darker colors tend to fade behind lighter ones. If the extremities are darker the center mass of the model will be emphasized with the limbs trailing into the peripheral. Reverse this and you'll emphasize the limbs more. If you are planning to pull the fade across the ridges and vents etc. you should also consider that making the raised surfaces darker may flatten them a bit.

Good point. I was goign to go for darker colors in the center areas, blending outward to pale colors on the legs. I also considered doing osme very very subtle red tones at the endof each leg/arm section, like some of the crab shells I've seen via Google.

I have a handful of Carnifex plates primed right now, with another handful in the box of sprues I just got. The armor plates feel like they're going to be the easiest part, and the bodies and legs will be much ahrder to get to look right.